Whereabouts

Meng Zu tied the four vampires hand and foot to chairs and lined them up. Their faces all bore marks as if they had been scorched by red-hot branding irons. Meng Zu splashed a basin of water over their heads, and the four vampires immediately woke up.

"Fuck! You're dead, human." Even though the burning wounds on his face reminded him that he had run into someone ruthless this time, the long-haired vampire still did not hesitate to spit out a threat to save face when he realized he was tied up.

"Asshole, let us go!"

"Damn it, I'll drain you dry!"

The other three vampires glared furiously at Meng Zu as well, hurling threats from their mouths.

Meng Zu was immediately puzzled. Were these four vampires idiots? In a situation like this, they actually dared to provoke him. Were they fearless, or just stupid?

They had come from out of town and dared to attack ordinary people. They clearly did not seem very bright, so these four must simply have low intelligence.

Meng Zu sat in front of the long-haired vampire and pulled a silver dagger engraved with a cross from his coat pocket. Other than his wallet, which he carried on him, everything else was stored in his storage space. Otherwise, he would never have made it through airport security. Taking things out of his pocket was merely an act.

"Sizzle—" Meng Zu slowly and lightly dragged the tip of the silver dagger across the back of the long-haired vampire's hand. A smoking cut immediately appeared, accompanied by the stench of singed hair.

"Fuck!" Veins bulged on the long-haired vampire's neck. His eyes widened as he screamed in pain.

"This dagger was once soaked in holy water and blessed by a cardinal. It can inflict tremendous damage on creatures of darkness. I paid five hundred thousand dollars to get it." Meng Zu spoke as he slowly continued drawing the blade across the back of the long-haired vampire's hand.

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. I'll carve cut after cut into your bodies until you tell me where that child is."

The other three vampires looked at the silver dagger in Meng Zu's hand in terror. When Meng Zu made the third cut, the long-haired vampire finally could not endure the pain any longer and shouted, "Ahhh! Stop, I'll talk! They aren't with me."

Meng Zu moved the silver dagger away and simply watched the long-haired vampire in silence.

The long-haired vampire panted heavily and endured the pain in the back of his hand as he said, "Someone picked them up three hours ago."

"Where did they go?"

"Ravensfair."

"Ravensfair? Why send them there? Hmm?" When Meng Zu saw that the long-haired vampire answered with silence, he immediately raised the silver dagger in his hand.

At that moment, the bartender, who had been silently watching from the side, spoke up. "For Soulstones, perhaps."

"Soulstones?" This was Meng Zu's first time hearing of them.

"A Soulstone is a small black stone. It is very useful to creatures of darkness and can increase their strength," the bartender explained to Meng Zu.

"So they sold those children as commodities to Ravensfair in exchange for Soulstones. I'm curious. Since you know you can get Soulstones from that Ravensfair place, why didn't you sell Sam and the other children for Soulstones yourself? Why did you let these four get the opportunity instead?" Meng Zu sized up the bartender. They were both vampires; there was no reason he would not be tempted by Soulstones.

"Although Soulstones can increase one's strength, they carry enormous hidden dangers. They are not naturally formed, but manufactured. To make one Soulstone, a living person must be tortured in agony until death. Then, their twisted soul, warped by endless suffering, is extracted and made into a Soulstone. During the Middle Ages, black witches proficient in soul magic often made Soulstones to trade with others."

"Absorbing Soulstones can indeed increase one's strength, but the resentment of the twisted souls within them affects the creatures of darkness who absorb them. Their hearts gradually become violent and cruel. Once they absorb too many, they turn into monsters that know only slaughter."

"There are very few black witches making Soulstones in the United States now. There were rumors in the underground before that Ravensfair seemed to have a black witch, because that is the only place in this region where Soulstones are circulated. If you want to save those children, you should get there quickly," the bartender kindly reminded Meng Zu.

"Why are you helping me?"

There was no such thing as love without reason. Meng Zu had beaten up the bartender's kin and disrupted the bar's normal business. If it were an ordinary person, they would have thrown him out of their establishment. Help him? You must be dreaming.

The bartender said to Meng Zu, "Those four came here because of members of our family. The fact that they knew about Soulstones and managed to contact Ravensfair means they must have learned it from someone in our family. Our family follows the rules. I do not want trouble brought to us."

Hearing that, Meng Zu felt that something was strange. Vampires who followed rules... well, it seemed that every vampire he had encountered several times had acted according to the rules.

"How do I get to Ravensfair?" Meng Zu realized that he did not know the way there. A place like that should be well hidden, right?

"Ravensfair is marked on the map."

Meng Zu (;￣д￣)

After swiping his card to pay for the broken tables and chairs, Meng Zu left. He did not concern himself with whether the four vampires lived or died. He was not from the Church, and killing them would not earn him even a single Contract Point. Besides, the bartender had given him information. Even though the bartender repeatedly said the four had nothing to do with him, Meng Zu could not truly refuse to give him face.

After Meng Zu left, the bartender looked at the four vampires and pondered for a moment. A silver short sword slipped from his sleeve into his palm. Amid the four vampires' shocked expressions, he swept his blade once and severed all four of their heads. The vampires' bodies instantly burst into flame, then turned into a pile of ashes.

The bartender took out his phone and made a call. Once the other side answered, he said, "Tell Taylor to be more careful about making friends. They brought a hunter here today."

Meng Zu drove while looking at the map and calculating the time it would take to arrive. "Without a smartphone, even traveling is inconvenient." He put down the map and slammed the accelerator, increasing the car's speed.

Honestly, Meng Zu had not expected this mission to involve a black witch. Black witches represented danger. They possessed strange and dangerous spells; curses, poison, and commanding vengeful spirits were all things they excelled at. The best way to deal with a black witch was to blow their head apart with a sniper rifle from a distance.

He was somewhat reluctant to abandon this mission. After all, fifty Contract Points was a high reward. The assassin missions he usually accepted from the Continental Hotel were generally worth thirty or forty Contract Points. The Exploding Wolf Gang mission before the New Year had been worth eighty Contract Points because it required wiping out the entire Exploding Wolf Gang. The more difficult the mission, the more Contract Points it offered.

When Meng Zu accepted the mission at the detective agency, Sam and the others should still have been in Sault Ste. Marie, which was why the reward was fifty Contract Points. Otherwise, with a black witch involved, the reward would definitely have been close to one hundred points, perhaps even higher.

Of course, Meng Zu would definitely investigate the situation before taking on this sort of mission. If it was truly too dangerous, he could only abandon it. Naturally, that was also because the system imposed no punishment for abandoning missions. Complete a mission and he would receive Contract Points; fail to complete it and he naturally would receive none.

Meng Zu's current plan was to go over and assess the situation, then see whether he could secretly take Sam away while the black witch was not paying attention. If that did not work, he could only abandon the mission.

A police car was parked beside several large trees off the highway, its body perfectly concealed by the trees. Its front faced the road. A young police officer sat inside eating a hamburger, while a speed gun sat on the center console pointed at the highway. Police in the United States often checked for speeding like this.

Whoosh—a car flashed past, startling the young officer. He turned to look at the speed gun and saw a reading of 217. He pulled out his radio and said, "A car just passed by at 217."

"Did you see the make and color?"

"No, it was too fast. Should I chase it?"

"Can you still see the car?"

The young officer stuck his head out and looked into the distance. "It's already far away. I can only see a tiny dot."

"Forget it, then. Just another damn street racer."